The present invention relates to systems and network management, and more particularly, to a method and system for active self discovery of devices that participate in a network.
In computer network environments, it is advantageous to manage the various software and hardware components coupled to the network from a central location or from a remote location. Such central or remote management of a network is commonly accomplished using industry standard protocols, such as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or the Desktop Management Interface (DMI). The discovery of devices on a network is a requirement for management of those devices by management software. Traditional network discovery is performed in one of the several ways. One method is called explicit discovery, where the network address of the device is explicitly specified to the management software. Another traditional method is Internet Protocol (IP) pinging, where the management software enumerates a range of network addresses and individually pings the addresses to detect active devices. Yet another traditional method is performed using router tables, where the management software collects potential device addresses from network router tables.
In the case of explicit discovery, it is necessary to learn the address of each device and enter the value in the management software. This is a time consuming process in a network of any substantive size. Additionally, since many devices are dynamically assigned network addresses, the explicitly entered information may become invalid with the passage of time. IP pinging is time consuming, consumes network bandwidth, and may produce inconclusive results. Additionally, when the presence of the device is detected, no information as to what sort of device has been detected is available. The use of router tables is also subject to similar deficiencies as IP pinging.
In all of these traditional cases, the fact that the address of a device can be dynamically changed is an ongoing problem. Once a device""s address is changed, the management software is no longer be able to communicate with it. These techniques rely on low level network protocols, and changes in network infrastructure technology often renders these traditional methods less effective or even non-effective.
It is desired to provide a network management system with improved discovery of devices attached to or that otherwise participate in a network. It is desired to reduce network traffic related to management functions, such as discovery, and to enable device information to remain updated regardless of network changes. It is desired to provide information about devices at the time of discovery, rather then requiring continued communication.
A network management discovery system for a network according to the present invention includes a management server having a corresponding server address and at least one managed device. The management server includes a management database that is used to store management information and corresponding network addresses received from the network. The one or more managed devices each include an active discovery agent which initiates management of the corresponding managed device by sending management information to the management server using the server address. In this manner, the management server is automatically provided with the management information and network address of each managed device that supports active self discovery.
The managed device may send its management information and its network address upon initialization, such as upon power-up or reset. In this manner, management of the managed device begins once the managed device becomes active on the network. Furthermore, the managed device may send updated management information to the management server if and when the management information changes. Such changes may include, for example, any status or configuration changes of the managed device. Also, the managed device may send a new network address to the management server if the network address of the managed device is dynamically changed. In this manner, the active discovery agent of the managed device keeps the management server updated with any management information changes in a very efficient manner.
The management server may include a network interface and a back end process or module that processes management information and network addresses received via the network into the management database. The back end module may comprise a single processes that strips management information from each management package, formulates the information into an appropriate format for the management database and stores the information therein. Alternatively, the back end module is split into at least two separate processes and an intermediate transaction file. For example, the back end module may include a first module that transfers management information and addresses into the transaction file as received, and a second module that processes the management information and addresses from the transaction file into the management database. In this manner, the first back end module is able to quickly transfer management packages into the intermediate file with little processing to reduce network overhead associated with management. The second module processes the management information independently of the network and thus without adding further management overhead to the network.
The active discovery agent may support the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and act as an HTTP client to send the management information, where the management server includes a web server that supports HTTP. In this manner, the active discovery agent and the web server communicate according to HTTP. The server address may be an actual address or may comprise a symbolic address. For HTTP, the symbolic address is resolved into an Internet Protocol address using the Domain Naming Service (DNS) or the like. For HTTP, the active discovery agent may formulate the management information and the network address into an HTTP post transaction that is sent to the web server according to HTTP. The HTTP post transaction may include an entity body or payload. The content of the entity body may be described by an HTTP content-type tag, which may further be described using a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) descriptor.
A method of active self discovery of devices participating in a network according to the present invention, for a network that includes at least one managed device and a management server, includes steps of providing a managed device with a server address corresponding to the management server, formulating, by the managed device, management information and a network address corresponding to the managed device into a management package, and sending, by the managed device, the management package to the management server using the server address to initiate management of the managed device. In this manner, the management server is not required to initiate management and is automatically provided management information from each managed device which supports active self discovery.
During operation, the managed device further may formulate and send updated management packages each time the management information changes. Such changes may include, for example, status or configuration changes or a change of the network address of the managed device. The method may further comprising processing, by the management server, any management packages received via the network into a management database. Such processing may be performed by a single back end process or a split process for faster response and reduced network overhead. The method may further comprise formulating a management package into an HTTP post transaction and sending the HTTP post transaction to the management server according to HTTP. Again, the HTTP post transaction may include an entity body or payload. The content of the entity body may be described by an HTTP content-type tag, which may further be described using a MIME descriptor.
It is appreciated that active self discovery according the present invention provides a network management system with improved discovery of devices. Active self discovery reduces network traffic related to management functions and enables device management information to remain updated regardless of network changes. The management server is automatically provided information about managed devices at the time of discovery, and does not have to rely on traditional discovery methods such as explicit discovery, IP pinging, router tables, etc. Such traditional methods usually require continued communication that significantly reduces network bandwidth available for normal communications.